Gazprom will do its best to make Ukraine 'lose taste' for seizure of its assets

MOSCOW, June 6. /TASS/. Gazprom will do its best to make Ukraine "lose taste for" seizure of its assets to secure payment of penalty, Deputy CEO of Gazprom Alexander Medvedev told a press conference.

He was commenting on the decision of Ukrainian authorities to seize the shares Gazprom holds in the Gastransit company.

"We will do our best to make Europe see what is happening and to make Ukraine lose taste for taking such actions," he said.

He said Gazprom will do this "before Ukraine calls Kafka (Franz Kafka, German-speaking writer of the twentieth century - TASS) a Ukrainian writer."

"Although I do not rule out that this may happen, but anyway the actions of the Ukrainian party have purely Kafkaesque nature," Medvedev said.

"Gazprom was accused of being a monopolist in a situation where we are not a company that provides services, but a recipient of services," he explained.

In May, the State Executive Service of Ukraine’s Justice Ministry seized the shares Gazprom holds in Gastransit on the appeal of Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee (UAMC).

According to Gazprom’s financial report under IFRS, Gazprom received a ruling on seizure of Gastransit company’s shares from Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice on May 12.

Gazprom received rulings of the state enforcement department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice on May 12, 2017 regarding opening of enforcement proceedings amounting to 189.1 bln hryvnias ($7.2 bln) and "seizure of shares in Gastransit held by Gazprom," the company said in its report.

Management of Gazprom Group made a decision to report liabilities amounting to the book value of Gastransit shares, the company said.

Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine each holds 40.2% shares in Gastransit. Turkey’s Turusgaz holds a stake of 19.6% in the company. Gastransit specializes in construction of pipelines.

In January 2016, the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee (UAMC) decided to impose a fine on Gazprom in the amount of 85.9 bln hryvnias, or around $3.2 bln, over violations of the law on protection of economic competition. Gazprom disputed the decision in the Economic Court of Kiev, though the court dismissed the complaint on February 22 of the last year.

On May 16, 2017 Kiev Economic Court of Appeal dismissed the complaint of Gazprom against the decision of Ukrainian courts, which upheld the lawsuit of Ukraine’s antimonopoly committee to oblige the Russian company to pay a fine. A source in the Ukrainian antimonopoly committee told TASS earlier that Gazprom has the right to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.